Cheers To Beer And Cheese

By Geoff Griggs

At last month’s beer tastings Kieran Haslett-Moore and I set out to prove that traditional beer and cheese are made for each other.

Kieran, who is the delicatessen manager at Moore Wilson’s, had selected seven of his favourite New Zealand cheeses, while I’d chosen appropriate beers to match. At the tastings I first introduced the beer and then Kieran described the cheese. Only then did we try the two together and discuss the success, or otherwise, of the match.

The first pairing was a sour Belgian Lambic beer, Boon Oude Geuze, with Kingsmeade Cheeses Ngawi Brie. Founded in 1998 by Miles and Janet King, Kingsmeade Cheeses is located on the outskirts of Masterton and is best known for its sheep milk cheeses. Kieran had aged the (cows’ milk) brie to perfection; it was ripe, gooey and appropriately smelly, but the rind had a sharp, radish-like piquancy which counterpointed the creamy interior.

Lambic beers are noted for their distinctive musty, earthy character and whiff of cheesiness (from the brewer’s use of aged hops). These, I hoped, would pick up similar characteristics in the cheese. The pairing worked superbly; while the flavours matched seamlessly, the beer’s sharp acidity did a great job of cutting through the fattiness of the cheese and cleansing the palate in preparation for the next mouthful. It was a delightful match which included both complementary and contrasting elements.

The second pairing coupled Te Mata Pakipaki with Emerson’s Weissbier. The Te Mata Cheese Co. was founded near Havelock North in 2004, by dairy farmer’s daughter Karryn Bish and her winemaker husband Tony. The company has since developed a wide range of characterful cheeses which Kieran reckons, “push the boundaries a little, rather than offering middle-of-the-road ‘beginner’ cheeses”.

Kieran prefers to serve Pakipaki - a soft, white-rinded goats cheese - on the young side, which is probably just as well considering the level of sweet, gamey, barnyard-like aromas and flavours we encountered! The Dunedin-brewed German style wheat beer was delightfully fresh; its tart, sherbet-like spritziness and banana and clove notes offering a delightful counterpoint to the fatty cheese. Another great match!

Next came the classic English ploughman’s lunch pairing of Barry’s Bay Mature Cheddar with an English bitter, Shepherd Neame Spitfire. Given the Barry’s Bay cheese plant is located just outside of Akoroa, on Banks Peninsula, it is perhaps surprising that the company specialises in traditional English cheeses as opposed to French styles.
Kieran was at pains to point out that this cheese is one of New Zealand’s very few independently made cheddars. The production process is strictly traditional; the cheese is made in rounds, which are then aged in cloth to allow the nutty, salty and tangy flavors to fully develop.

Over the three tastings I noticed a marked difference in the flavor of this well aged cheese, depending on where in the round it had been cut from. Close to the rind it had a waxy texture and a woody smokiness, while from the centre it was saltier and much creamier.

The English ale’s toffee and caramel malt flavours, estery fruitiness and dry, resiny, hoppy finish offered a delightful contrast of flavours and its gentle carbonation did a superb job of lifting the creaminess of the cheese off the tongue. Sadly Shepherd Neame’s fine ales are rarely imported these days, but a local brew like Pink Elephant Golden Tusk, or Renaissance Perfection Pale Ale would make an excellent alternative.

Our fourth match was Meyer Old Gouda with Hofbrauhaus Maibock. Started in Hamilton in 1984 by ex-pat Dutch couple Ben and Fieke Meyer, Meyer Cheeses now produces over 85,000 kilos of Gouda every summer. Matured for between nine months and a year, the aged Gouda we sampled was delightfully nutty with a strong tropical fruit (pineapple?) character and an almost cheddar-like sharpness.

At over seven percent alcohol the Munich-brewed Maibock was typically full-bodied with a rich, caramel-like sweet maltiness and just a hint of flowery, palate-cleansing hops coming through late in the finish. Sampled together the match was absolutely seamless; we couldn’t tell where the beer finished and the cheese began – or was it the other way around?!

Our next match was by far the stinkiest! Having only recently discovered the delights of Kapiti Ramara - a Trappist style, ‘run off the plate’ soft white, washed-rind, cow’s milk cheese - I was itching to pitch its pungent musty, sweaty, earthy notes against a similarly ‘rustic’ brew. And I had just the beer in mind!

With its remarkable spritziness, hoppy dryness and barnyard-like whiff of hot leather and hessian (the latter imparted by the wild yeast Brettanomyces), the Belgian Trappist ale Orval not only held its own with the Ramara, it lifted the cheese’s fattiness off the tongue and cleansed the palate perfectly. Bliss!

Most experts recommend pairing the roasted malt flavours of a dry stout with a tangy blue cheese but I was keen to save this style of cheese for our final beer, so the next match was highly experimental. Instead we pitched the mighty (10.5%) Pink Elephant Imperious Rushin Stowt against Blue River Dairy’s ‘Curio Bay’ Pecorino.

Based in Southland, Blue River specialises in the production of sheep’s milk cheeses like the Curio Bay Pecorino. We found this yellowy-white hard cheese had a dryish, crumbly texture with sweet nutty and earthy flavours and a teasing suggestion of roast lamb in the finish.

By contrast, New Zealand’s only commercial Imperial Stout poured a typically pitch black colour and had a slightly sour caramel aroma with a hint of chocolate. Sadly, once in the mouth, the beer’s intense dryness, dark chocolate flavours and deep bitterness completely overwhelmed the cheese. Pity!

Our final match saw one of England’s classic strong ales, Thomas Hardy’s Ale, paired with an excellent Kiwi blue cheese, Te Mata Port Ahuriri. Although this cheese is made with a genuine English Stilton culture and shares that style’s sweet creaminess and crumbly texture, the strong sharp blue flavour reminded me more of a Danish blue.
Examples of Thomas Hardy’s Ale that have been cellared for 25 years or more are often port-like and almost unrecognisable as beer, so the 2005 vintage bottles we sampled were in their infancy. At just two years old the chestnut coloured brew had a huge, almost chewy, sweet toffee maltiness and a hint of Marmitey yeastiness, but just as the beer seemed inevitably to be heading for a cloying finish along came a late surge of mouth-filling hop resins and palate-cleansing bitterness to save the day.

Remarkably, even at this tender age, the beer both complemented and contrasted brilliantly with the cheese. It was a wonderful marriage and one that will work differently, but equally well, over the years as the malt and hops recede and the beer becomes more wine-like.

At the end of each of the three Wellington tastings we took a vote to determine the people’s favourite matches. Drum roll please…
- In third place; Thomas Hardy’s Ale with Te Mata Port Ahuriri.
- In second place; Orval with Kapiti Ramara.
- And the winner; Hofbrauhaus Maibock with Meyer Old Gouda.

My thanks to Kieran and everyone who came along for a great series of tastings. Cheers!

The Products...

Orval 330Ml
An unusually hoppy pale Trappist ale that is bottled with a yeast strai...
$8.70 330 MLS

Emersons Weiss Hefe 500Ml
A specially imported Bavarian yeast strain gives Eme...
$6.10 500 MLS

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